Mallette digging deep with likely little sleep

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The most recent example was a 4-1 road win in Vancouver last Friday.

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The underlying theme at the LEC (Langley Events Centre) was hard work and managing the puck at a high level.

Yet the headscratcher was a night later, at home against the same team, where they had nowhere near the desire to win as the night prior and treated the puck as a ticking time bomb.

The indifferent play carried over into a 5-1 loss to the Victoria Royals on Sunday, against a team who had four regulars out of the lineup, including marquee d-man Gannon Laroque and 18-year-old speedster Brayden Schuurman.

We at RocketFAN had to ask, why has the team been so inconsistent this season, with the longest winning streak a meager two games?

“We need to want the puck”, Mallette said without hesitation. “At times it looks like we couldn’t get it off our stick fast enough”.

Composure with the puck is clearly an area of concern.

It appears to be more pronounced in the d-zone as opposed to the offensive end of the ice.

“If you are afraid to get hit, and I don’t think any of our guys are, but it looks like it at times, they can’t get the puck off their stick quick enough”, Mallette added. “I preach confidence and that is something we are trying to instill with different drills and strategies in practice.

“When it comes to games, these guys have to be willing to run into somebody or get run over to make a play.”

Mallette is trying to be patient with a team that has made several roster moves this season, including adding three new players this month (Trae Johnson/Ethan Mittelstadt/Ty Hurley) and shipping three away in trades (Colton Dach/Noland Flamand/Jackson Romeril).

“We can’t expect perfection right away”, Mallette added. “We have a young team with some newer players now that we are implementing things that everyone is trying to get on board with.”

Hurley has played just one game since being acquired in the Seattle Thunderbirds deal, when he was injured in his debut against the Kamloops Blazers.

Leading scorer Andrew Cristall was hurt in that same game and won’t play in the NHL/CHL Top Prospects Game on Wednesday because of it.

“It can’t just be one line [scoring]”, Mallette pointed out. “We need some other guys to help out on that end.”

Newly acquired Trae Johnson has had some good looks over the weekend, as did rookie Ethan Neutens, who is still without a goal this season.

Rarely used forward Will Munro had a few chances, specifically in Saturday’s one-goal setback to the G-Men.

“Anything we can get to the net, with guys hanging around would be great,” Mallette added when asked if his players should have more of a shooter mentality. “Guys score off the rush all the time. I find our guys get into a position where it is almost too late to shoot. D-men are programmed to give the goalie the shot, and take away that backdoor tap-in, so why not make the most of that opportunity?

“Once you do take that shot, stop at the net, because if he [goalie] does make a save, if you hang around you can tap one in.”

Compounding matters is the amount of time the team is spending killing off penalties.

It wears down your best players, who are expending energy while a teammate is sitting in the box, is used even-strength to produce offense, and get significant power play time.

The Rockets have been shorthanded the most of any of the 10 teams in the Western Conference, killing off 193 penalties.

“If we take penalties, we better kill them,” Mallette warned.